


For a Cup of Coffee

by Codydarkstalker



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 14:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15463317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codydarkstalker/pseuds/Codydarkstalker
Summary: Tony and Stephen are willing to do a lot for a cup of coffee and some really good disco fries. Even get along with one another.





	For a Cup of Coffee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MangoTea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MangoTea/gifts).



Tony stared at the mess in front of him, right eye beginning to twitch. It was the third coffee machine Dum-E had broken that month. It had been a beautiful machine. It made every coffee drink Tony could possible want with the press of a button, he had made it himself, it was like a child to him. A child that produced life giving caffeine. 

“How, how could you do this to me?” Tony spun on his heel and glared at the offending robot. It was cowering behind a workbench like a dog that had been scolded. “You know, I should disassemble you for this! Use you for spare parts to make a new coffee maker!” A grin slowly spread across his face, his eyes wide and manic as he grabbed for the nearest screwdriver and launched forward towards the robot. 

The robot let out a high pitched beep and rolled away as quickly as possible, weaving around the tool boxes and benches and half finished projects that filled up the lab. It turned left and followed the edge of the wall, still beeping violently, and then was knocked hard off course by the door suddenly swinging open ito it’s path. Dum-E let out a pathetic series of beeps as it rolled over onto it’s back, wheels still spinning uselessly in the air.

Tony shouted and jumped over a toolbox, seeing his chance to grab the bot...and then promptly began to fall backwards, his boots landing right in the pile of wet coffee grounds that had exploded out of the machine Dum-E broke. He made a desperate grab for the nearest workbench, but as soon as his hand closed on plastic and not metal he realized his mistake.

“Uh, Mr. Stark?” Peter Parker stood in the doorway, one arm clutching his backpack, the other keeping the door open. He looked down at the scene in front of him, Dum-E was desperately trying to right itself, and U, the other robot was making alarmed beeping noises and circling the wreckage of the coffee machine, which Tony was still laying in, clutching at his head. “You alright?”

“No. no I’m not alright,” Tony groaned, flopping onto his back. “The robots have turned against me. It’s the start of the singularity.”

Peter walked over, gingerly stepping over most of the mess. “Is that...was that your coffee maker?” he crouched down and poked at a bit of machinery with a pencil, careful not to get any of the mess on himself. 

“Yes, yes it was.” Tony sighed and pushed himself up so he was sitting, reaching out and yanking on Dum-E’s side to pull the robot right side up. “Someone got over excited with the fire extinguisher again.” he shot a dirty look at the robot.

Peter bit his lip, trying not to laugh. U had grabbed a broom and was trying to sweep up the remains while Dum-E buzzed around with a dustpan, spreading the mess further. “Well, I was coming by to see if you wanted to get something to eat, maybe coffee too?”

Tony perked up at the mention of food. “Yeah , that sounds good. I haven’t eaten in…” he paused to think for a moment. “Hey, FRIDAY, how long since I ate?”

“Fifteen hours Mister Stark,” came the reply from a well concealed speaker in the ceiling. “I did remind you several times.” Peter wasn’t sure if the judgemental tone was something Tony had programmed into the AI or something it had learned, but he was impressed. It sounded a lot like Pepper when she came down to the lab to remind people that even super heroes needed to eat and sleep. 

“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m going!” Tony struggled to his feet and looked down at his clothes. There was a hole in the old Queen shirt he had put on that morning, and his jeans had coffee grounds on the knees. “Hey, where are we going, do I need to change?”

Peter shook his head. “Nah, I figured we should go to Pete’s Diner since it’s gonna close soon.” He gestured at his own casual clothes. “No real need to dress up for disco fries.”

Tony froze, eyes going wide. “Did you...did you just say Pete’s is closing?” 

Peter nodded slowly. “Yeah, they just put up a sign but I think they posted it on Facebook like, last week.” he scratched his head and thought for a moment. “I think it was something about the building being sold, or the rent going up? I don’t know exactly.”

 

Tony wasn’t even listening, he was grabbing his wallet and keys off of a table and hurrying out the door, grabbing a jacket as he did. “Yeah, yeah, tell me in the car kid.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The little diner looked much the same as usual. Sun faded flyers taped inside the windows, a dizzying array of neon signs, most with a letter or two burnt out, and the amazing smell of grease and coffee coming out the door. The only change was the small crowd that was milling around. It was an eclectic mix, bleary eyed students with laptop bags, office ladies who had already changed into their commuting sneakers, even a group of what looked like actors, most still with traces of stage makeup on their necks and hairlines. 

“Huh, guess we’re gonna have to wait for a table.” Peter frowned. The diner wasn’t usually so crowded.

“Yeah, as if kid.” Tony waded into the crowd, taking advantage of his lack of height and muscle to slip between people. When he reached the door he pulled it open just enough so he could slip inside, holding it open with his shoe so Peter could follow him.

“Oh! Mr. Stark!” A waiter with a shock of bright red hair and a pen behind his ear waved at the pair of them. “You want a booth?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Tony leaned against the wall as the waiter hurried to clear a recently vacated booth of coffee mugs and greasy napkins. Inside, the diner was almost as busy as outside. Almost every seat at the counter was filled, and the tables and booths all seemed packed.

“Wow, just gonna take the booth I was waiting on huh? I guess you get used to that treatment when you only eat at restaurants you own.”

Tony spun on his heel and found himself face to face with one Stephen Strange. He had swapped out the cape for civvies, forest green joggers and what Tony recognized as very expensive Nike sneakers. With his shaggy curls and beard he looked more like like an owner of a yoga studio than the Sorcerer Supreme, but that was perhaps the point. 

“Hey Mister-uh, I mean, Dr. Strange!” Peter bounced on his toes and gave the older man a little wave. 

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be off pulling a rabbit out of a hat?” Tony sneered. The other man had a talent for getting under his skin. He wasn’t sure what it was about him, but Stephen Strange irked him. Maybe it was the magic mumbo jumbo. He was sure that given a few days with a scrap of that clock of his he could figure out what kind of nanotech it had woven into the fibers to make it move like that.

“I’ve been coming to this place since I was a student. Cheap coffee is what makes doctors.” Stephen shrugged and gave Tony a somewhat judgemental once over, gaze lingering on his worn out shirt and the holes in his jeans. After half a beat he turned and gazed around the restaurant. 

It hadn’t changed much over the years. The same blue vinyl seating, now cracked and peeling to show the foam underneath. The same giant menus, most sporting coffee stains and torn at the edges. The food wasn’t fancy, it was typical New York diner fare, burgers, breakfast, almost anything a person could think of dumping in a deep fryer. The coffee was cheap and served in massive mugs which the waitresses kept filled, and there was a beat up old juke box in the corner.

“Why don’t you join us?” Peter asked, eyes hopeful.

Tony rolled his eyes and waited for the other man to make some excuse and leave them to eat fries in peace. Stephen had made it clear on more than a few occasions that he couldn’t stand his company. The best he had gotten was a photo op with the other man after they had temporarily teamed up to deal with a gas leak that caused an explosion in Alphabet City. They had smiled awkwardly, a few careful inches between them, and then gone their separate ways. 

“Sure, better than waiting.” Strange swept past Tony and slid into the booth without even glancing at him.

“Yeah, why not…” Tony grumbled under his breath, following Peter into the seat. He didn’t have time to say anything else before the waiter was back, already carry mugs and what looked to be a fresh carafe of coffee.

“You boys know what you’re ordering or you need a minute?”

“Pancakes please! With blueberries. And eggs! Over easy, thanks. Oh! And bacon, like a lot of bacon...aaaand hash browns,” Peter rattled off, eyes glazing over as he looked at the breakfast food selection. 

Tony took a moment to envy the boy his mix of superhuman and teenage boy metabolism. “Disco fries and a bacon cheeseburger, and keep the coffee coming.”

The waiter nodded, added the order to the already long list and turned his attention to Stephen. The sorcerer barely glanced at the menu before placing his order. “Vanilla milkshake, mozzarella sticks and an order of spanakopita, please.” He snapped the menu shut and hadded it off with a pleased look.

Tony waited for the waited to walk away before saying anything. “Fried foods and milkshakes huh? Didn’t know those monks you were chummy with let you have such worldly tastes.” 

“Mr. Stark!” Peter hissed and elbowed his mentor, face going red with embarrassment. “They’re not just regular monks, they’re like, super cool wizard monks!”

Stephen huffed out a small laugh. “Wong is more of a tuna melt guy.” he picked up his mug of coffee and took a long sip, clearly savoring it. “And before I was the Sorcerer Supreme I was a college kid and then a med student, who had a lot of long nights and lived off junk food like almost every dumbass kid does.”

Peter snorted into his own heavily doctored coffee. He had poured so much milk and sugar into it that it looked more like milk, but Tony was pretty sure he didn’t need anymore energy than he already had. 

“Ah yes, how could I forget, med school! It’s not like you make everyone call you Doctor all the time.” Tony flicked a few sugar packets and angrily opened them with his teeth, dumping them into his mug. “Ya know, I have several PHDs and I never make anyone call me Doctor Stark.”

Stephen rolled his eyes. “Not many people address anyone without an MD as Doctor.” he shifted slightly in his seat, and under the table his leg brushed against Tony’s for a moment before he settled, his sneaker just resting against Tony’s own. 

“It was a title for scientists first! You guys took it and now everyone uses it just for you!” Tony stirred his coffee so hard a bit splashed onto the cracked top of the table. “Also, using your real name as your superhero name is just dumb. Terrible marketing.”

“I kinda like the alliteration…” Peter valiantly tried to get a word in edgewise, but was immediately cut off.

“Oh, because Iron Man is such a great choice. Come up with that all on your own?” Stephen arched an eyebrow elegantly.

“Yeah, I did!” Tony snapped. “Same way I came up with my suit and tech. No one just handed me a bunch of magic nonsense powers!”

Stephen was about to retort, but before he could, the waiter approached, both arms weighed down with massive trays of food. It took a few minutes to get it all to fit on the table, and by the time it was done most of the tension had gone out of the man’s face. Peter quickly took advantage of the momentary calm to begin lavishly praising the food, gushing about it around mouthfuls of bacon and pancakes.

“I can’t believe this place is gonna close down,” Peter sighed, dragging a piece of bacon through his egg yolks. “It’s the best place in the neighborhood.”

Tony picked up a cheese covered french fry and stuffed it in his mouth, taking a moment to think. “I wonder if I can just buy the building…” He took a sip of coffee and ran through the numbers in his head. He had the money, there was no way the building could cost much, not compared to his normal real estate investments. 

“I already tried,” Stephen interrupted. “I couldn’t find the owner, no matter how many calls I made.”

“Oh, and you couldn’t divine the answer in some sort of crystal ball?” Tony asked, setting his mug down a bit harder than necessary.

“Oh, humor, that’s a nice way of covering up how uncomfortable you are with what I do,” Strange commented. “Are you always this obvious when something scares you?”

Tony slapped his hand down onto the table. “I’m not scared! I just don’t believe in your magic mumbo jumbo. Also, don’t psychoanalyze me Strange, I know you're not that sort of doctor.”

“I did my psych rotation, and I don’t need to be Freud to see how obvious you are.” Stephen smiled, lips pressed into a narrow line.

“Okay, well back to more important matters, is there really nothing to do?” Peter interrupted, face hopeful. “I mean, we all love this place.”

Tony rolled his eyes. The kid was too cute when he begged, and the worst part was he knew it. 

“Okay kid, fine. I guess I can dedicate some of my considerable resources to this problem. But only because I really, really like disco fries and coffee.” He picked up a fry and jammed it in his mouth for emphasis.

Peter turned his attention to Strange, pushing out his bottom lip in an exaggerated pout. “Are you gonna help too?” 

Stephen flinched slightly, sliding down into his seat a bit under the weight of Peter’s stare. “I-I guess I can help if it means that much to you.”

Peter nodded firmly. “It does. You know, my aunt and I came here a lot after my uncle...after Ben died. She had a crazy shift at work and this was one of the only places open that late. We would split a breakfast special and do my homework in the booth.”

“Well I guess that means we’re gonna be working together huh Dumbledore?” Tony tapped the other man on the leg with his foot, forcing one of his trademark grins. “Fun huh?”

Stephen rolled his eyes and pulled his legs back, tucking them under his seat, out of Tony’s reach. “Yes, spending time with you is certainly...fun.”

Peter opened his mouth to say something but was distracted by his phone buzzing loudly in his pocket. He fumbled for it and swiped his thumb across the screen, the voice loud enough to be heard before he could even get it to his ear.

“PETER DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LATE YOU ARE???”

Peter’s face went white and he waved a hasty goodbye and he slid out of the booth and made a break for the door, holding the phone a few inches from his face as he babbled rapidfire apologies.

Stephen shot Tony a confused look. “Do you know what all that was about?”

Tony gave a short bark of a laugh. “Yeah, his aunt, she’s smoking hot but kind of...intense. Like, scary intense when it comes to that kid.”

“Must you always be so gross?” Stephen asked, a pained look on his face. 

“Actually, yes.” Tony tossed back the last of his coffee and looked at the table. Most of the food had been eaten, and it looked a bit like a very small twister had hit. “So, you actually got any ideas on how to save this place?”

Stephen thought for a moment and then nodded. “Actually, yes, I do.”

\--------------------------------------------------

Tony looked around the Sanctum Sanctorum with a strange mix of curiosity and fear. The house felt strange inside, like the air was overly saturated with static electricity. It felt like it crackled over his skin, making his nerves thrum when he reached out to touch anything.

“What is that?” He asked, hovering his hand over a glass display case. If he looked closely he could see the air shimmer between his skin and the glass, like heat waves coming off cars in the Summer heat.

“Magic,” Stephen answered simply, continuing past Tony and up the staircase. 

Moving further into the house, things became a bit less like a museum and more like a home. It was easier to see the changes Stephen had made. An ancient wooden desk with a modern computer. A pair of sneakers abandoned next to a hand sewn meditation cushion. 

“Oh, of course, should have been obvious.” Tony rolled his eyes and followed Stephen into a surprisingly modern office. The desk was massive, shining dark wood inlaid with gold, and on top was a computer, with two monitors taking up a good deal of the space. Behind the desk was a massive leather chair, with Stephen’s cloak draped over the back.

“Huh, you know, I always took you as the kinda guy who used a yoga ball as a desk chair.” Tony laughed, walking around the desk to get a look at the tech. It was all a sub brand of Stark tech, and he had to fight not to grin even wider.

“You know there’s isn’t any sort of traditional yoga practice that requires a giant rubber ball.” Stephen nudged him aside and sat down at the computer, tapping a few buttons to bring the screens to life. “Now, I had an idea.”

“So, not going with the crystal ball idea?” Tony perched himself on the edge of of the desk, twisted so he could see what Stephen was typing.

“No.” Stephen turned one of the monitors sideways so Tony could look. “Look here, I did a bit of digging and the problem is the diner is only one of a series of companies owned by a Russian nesting doll of shell companies. There doesn’t seem to be any end to it.”

Tony hmmed for a moment and then fished in his pocket for his keys. “I have an idea.” He pulled out a keyring and pressed his thumb against what looked like a normal house key. After he did so the key buzzed faintly and the top slid off, revealing a small USB. “Here, plug this in.”

Stephen took the tiny drive carefully, as if it might bite him if handled wrong. “What is this?”

“A key, to tap into the AI I use at Stark Tower, lets me remote in basically.” Tony watched as Stephen plugged in the drive. A moment later the screens on his computer monitors were replaced with image of the Stark logo, slowly revolving as the connection was made. 

“Hello Mr. Stark” A slightly tinny voice rang out from the speakers.

“Hey there FRIDAY, can you do me a favor and check up on who owns the building that pete’s Diner is in?”

“Yes sir.” 

The logo on the screen continued rotating for a moment and then was replaced by a neatly laid out page of information. At the top was a picture of the diner, and under that several pictures of more buildings, all scattered around the same part of manhattan. The next pages were zoning paperwork, bills of sale, liquor license, transfers of property. Halfway through the paperwork became almost nonsensical. Shell corps wrapped around shell corps. Paperwork with redacted information and obviously fake names. 

“This is all the available information on the location sir.” 

Tony cursed as he looked over the information on the screen. “What, FRIDAY, come on, there has to be more than this.” he sighed and scrolled through the pages. “I mean, this is all garbage, half the information is fake.” 

Stephen gave a short laugh. “I told you as much before.”

Tony shook his head. “Yes, yes you used your advanced Google-fu and found out the information publicly available is garbage. But now we have some decent proof something shady is going on. Forged paperwork like this is illegal, I’d say tax fraud at the least, maybe a drug running front at the worst.” He poked at the computer for a second before a new map showed up, this one covered in red dots.

“What’s that?” Stephen leaned forward in his chair, leaning a bit on Tony’s leg. “It’s too many dots for it to all be properties.”

“Better than that!” Tony exclaimed, too excited about his find to pay attention to the way his personal space was being invaded. “I pulled up the IP addresses of the computers used to alter these records,and then mapped them all out.”

Stephen considered this for a minute. “It seems like all of the access has been from Hell’s Kitchen and the surrounding neighborhoods.”

Tony nodded and then slumped a bit. “Yeah, but I can’t find the person with just this, it’s not quite that easy. They used a mix of private lines, public wifi, mobile towers. They bounced around all over, probably to avoid leaving a clear trail.”

Stephen reached around Tony’s back and tapped a button on the printer, causing the machine to whirr to life. “Oh, I think I can handle this part.” 

Tony snorted. “What, you can suddenly track IP addresses? I didn’t think you had a doctorate in compsci too.”

Stephen waited for the pages to print out and then drew a number of circles in the air, the lines his fingers made copied in the air with lines of glowing light. When he was done he pushed his hand into the air in the center, and his hand disappeared, reappearing a second later clutching a black stone on the end of a long silver chain. 

“No, Tony, no computer wizardry for me, just the normal kind.”

Stephen laid the papers in front of him on the desk and held his hand over them, letting the rock fall so it dangled from his hand, an inch or so form the surface of the paper. For a half a heart beat it seemed as though nothing was happening, but then the stone began to glow, and it circles, seemingly on it’s own, in the air around the paper. 

“So, you’re going to...wave jewelry at the problem, huh?” Tony asked, voice slightly strained. No matter how long he spent in the Avengers, magic made his skin itch in a way he couldn’t quite understand. 

“No, it’s a form of scrying...or dousing.” Stephen held up his hand to prevent Tony from replying, “But I need to concentrate.”

Tony bit his lip and watched quietly. The stone swung, first slowly, and then faster, moving in larger circles, and then stopping suddenly. It hovered in the air for a second and then Stephen’s hand seemed to be yanked down forcefully, as the stone pushed into the paper so hard it tore into the paper and the blotter on the desk below. 

“There.”

\-----------------------------------------------

“There” turned out to be a renovated building that looked like it used to be a commercial space of some kind. The street was dark, and empty. Right in front of the building were a number of sleek black SUVs, all parked in a row. 

“Huh, not very subtle, are they?” Tony climbed out out of the self driving car that had dropped them off and took a look at the trucks. Each one had a box around the license plate, obscuring the number. “Looks like they didn’t wanna be followed.”

Stephen opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when they heard a noise coming from an upper floor of the building. A gunshot rang out in the dark and glass shards rained down on the men from the broken window overhead. Stephen threw his arm out and his cloak shot out, shielding them both. 

“Well, I guess that’s our cue.” Tony set his feet and let his Iron man suit attach itself to him, giving Stephen a quick wink just as the visor settled over his eyes. 

Stephen shook his head and spread his arms, the cloak lifting him into the air. Tony fired his boosters, moving with his as they shot up at the broken window. Inside, the building was dark, and Tony held a hand to his helmet, scanning the rooms with the help of FRIDAY.

“We should head up to the roof and move down, I can detect the body heat of at least five men, and the action is heading upstairs.”

Stephen nodded and shot up into the air to get a better look. The roof of the building was almost flush with the ones on either side, and with a bird’s eye view he could see the open doors to the roof access stairs, both propped open with a broken piece of brick. Someone else had broken into the building, someone looking for the same person he and Tony were.

“You haven’t gotten any sort of...Avenger Alert… have you?” He asked, settling down on the roof softly, cape catching in the breeze.

Tony huffed out a laugh, breath slightly crackly through the suit’s speakers. “What? No. That’s for end of the world type stuff, not gunfire in New York.” Tony thumped down onto the roof and moved to the center of the building, looking down through the skylights. “Why?”

“I don’t think we’re alone.”

Tony didn’t have a chance to respond before everything seemed to happen at once. The glass of the skylight exploded at his feet, glass bursting upwards as a man kicked out the glass panel and swung up in the same powerful move. At the same moment, a man scrambled through the emergency staircase doorway, panting hard. He barely took a moment to breath before raising the gun in his hand and firing a quick shot, right at Tony.

Stephen reacted before he could even think. He focused all his energy, and wrapped his hand around the medallion at his neck, feeling time begin to slow down and crystalize around him. He moved, as if through syrup, pushing out a hand though the glasslike air, and shoved Tony hard, starting the other man on a slow motion path towards the ground. He saw the bullet inching towards him, and felt the cloak yank him back, pulling him just free of it’s path. As he fell back to the ground, time seemed to warp into overdrive, catching up around him. 

“Fuck!” Tony fired a blaster on his hand at the ground, pushing off and righting himself in one move. The bullet whizzed by and buried itself in the brickwork of a building across the street. “Gun down, NOW!” He leveled a blaster at each of the men.

The one who had jumped up through the skylight perched on the edge of the framework, a leather mask obscuring his face. “Stark?” He croaked, voice incredulous.

Tony nodded. “Yeah, what? Am I interrupting your little party?”

“What are you doing coming after The Kingpin?” The masked man demanded. “And why the Hell is Strange here?”

“What, Kingpin?” Stephen asked, mind racing. He could remember that name, it had been in the paper a while back, some local coverage of a white collar criminal. 

“We just wanted to figure out who was screwing with our diner!” Tony declared, taking advantage of the confusion to hit the large man in the suit with a rubber bullet, the shot knocking the man back into the door of the stairwell and effectively knocking him out. “I mean, I thought some guy bought Pete’s and was using it for money laundering or something now...whatever this is.” He gestured at the masked man.

“Daredevil!” Stephen crowed, finally remembering. “He was in the papers a while back, some street level superhero.”

Tony scoffed. “Yeah, he’s a superhero. I’ve never heard of him fighting off alien invaders.”

“Hey! I just keep it local. I mostly work in Hell’s Kitchen,” Daredevil argued, rising up on his feet. “I dealt with Kingpin last time.”

Tony laughed, slapping his knee with a loud clang. “Oh, okay, hell of a territory huh, a whole square mile of city near midtown?”

Daredevil slumped a bit in defeat. “Listen Stark, funny as this is to you, Kingpin is a big deal for me. His real name is Wilson Fisk, and he’s been causing a lot of trouble in my neighborhood. I have all the evidence I need, I just need him.”

Tony hesitated for a fraction of a second. “You have evidence...including the paperwork relating to Pete’s Diner?”

Daredevil nodded slowly. “Yeah…”

 

“Okay, I think we can make a deal then. I give you Fisk, and let you keep playing dress up in MY city-”

“OUR city Stark!” Stephen cut in.

“Yes, yes,” Tony sighed, continuing. “Anyway, i give you what I want, and you make sure I get Pete’s Diner.”

Daredevil turned to Stephen. “Is he serious?”

Stephen nodded. “Since it involves all night coffee and fries...yes he’s very serious.”

“Okay, fine.”

Tony dropped his palm, the shot he had been holding back fizzling out. “Ok, well then, I guess we solved this one huh?”

Stephen raised an eyebrow. “We huh?”

Tony tapped the side of his helmet, the face plates sliding out of the way. Beneath it, his cheeks were flushed in a way that had nothing to do with the heat inside the suit. “Yeah, well, i was hoping if I included you, maybe you would go for a cup of coffee with me at Pete’s sometime.”

Stephen didn’t hesitate, he leaned in and placed a quick kiss on Tony’s lips. “How can I say no to coffee at Pete’s?”


End file.
